Billet Thermostat Housing Install Anyone?

Anyone install the UCM billet thermostat yet? Interested in your review if you have.

For Sale Here
https://www.ebay.com/itm/204502465470

Pervious Thread
https://www.4runners.com/threads/billet-thermostat-housing-for-4-0l-1gr-fe.28186/

 

Is that like a really purvey thread? You know, full of innuendo's an dirty pictures!

 

I don't see the value of this when the OEM thermostat is pretty reliable.

If you simply want the 160F opening temperature for some reason, you can get a replacement Motorad 160F thermostat with housing for $35: https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=11494309&cc=1445180&pt=2200&jsn=13

I don't know if your heater performance will be reduced if you opt to put in a 160F thermostat.

 

Real question. I’m not trying to be a smart ass. I am curious as to what the benefit is of this. It does look kinda cool but when installed, you can barely see it.

 

I’ll bet the gentleman who just burned up his engine and plastic oil pickup tube would be interested.

I may be wrong but I thought an engine is designed to operate at a specific normal temperature. I would want assurance that a different thermostat operates at the same temperature as the OEM.

 

This thread touts the ability to drop in thermostats with different set points and flow characteristics: https://www.4runners.com/threads/billet-thermostat-housing-for-4-0l-1gr-fe.28186/

I'm leaving mine the way it came.

 

At the risk of sounding like an expert (I'm definitely not), prior to the modern computer-controlled fuel-injected engine some gearheads would select a thermostat temp/flow based on ideal operating conditions of their carburetor engine and local climate environment.

Taking this in two parts:

• billet housing looks awesome but strikes me as a solution looking for a problem. I know the vendor advocates that this is a fix for a very common/known problem with the current plastic housing but that doesn't seem to be a commonly-reported defect here or elsewhere
• moving to a thermostat with higher flow or different temp than stock is probably most relevant to a modded engine, perhaps tuned/supercharged. I'd like to think those experts would give that guidance to their customers

Thermostat is part of the engine system that all depends on specific results/behavior from all of the interdependent parts. If I eventually decide to SC I may change; in the meantime I'll trust that Toyota engineering and millions (trillions?) of miles of real world use have vetted the current design.

 

Another thing to consider is a low temp Tstat may cause a CEL and some engines just run better at certain temps. Take my LS2 for example, it likes to run warmer than most other engines.